End of year thesis project for BFA Interior Design
In my project, KNOT, I resist the violence inflicted upon Black women by challenging traditional beauty norms that exclude them. The widespread refusal to recognize Black women as feminine opens them up to forms of violence ranging from rhetoric to action. One feature of Black women that is relentlessly condemned as "improper," "unhygienic," and even "ugly" is hair. In thinking about this, I wanted to honor and restore the majesty of Black women’s hair by displaying it as an art form.
In my space, I use design to facilitate Black women’s reclamation of identity through the cultural media of textile art and hairdressing. I intend for the space to be one in which textile art will be created and hair will be done under one roof, in the hope that each medium will inform the other and that respect will be built not only between the artists but with the community as well. The title of the project, KNOT, was inspired by one definition of the word itself—“to unite
